Just Mel

Mixnitz and Hochlantsch

After few glasses of local Styria white wine and only few hour sleep, waking up early on a beautiful Saturday can be quite tricky. Not too sure how many times I had to snooze the alarm. Somehow I managed to drag myself out of my comfy bed and packed some stuff, like my ipod, diary, digital camera and ya da ya da ya da. Most of them were proven later to be burdens. Especially the thick jacket that I wore was definitely a mistake! Arriving at Hauptbahnhof (Central Train Station) on time and seeing almost everyone wearing just track suit, I look like an alien… Again, wrong dress code!!!! Sigh…

Regardless the morning drama, we hopped on the train and arrived at Mixnitz as planned. From there, we would walk through the wild Bärnschützklamm (Gorge) to the summit of Hochlantsch, 1,720m above sea level.

River along the steep path

To arrive at the entrance of Bärnschützklamm, we had to hike along the steep hill and it could be quite challenging, due to the steepness of this path. It always gives people a wrong impression that they are already in Bärnschützklamm. I was among one of them. Sometimes, that part of hiking do make one thing whether to continue or not and is highly not recommended for mum and dad. It is definitely not for my parents. Having said that, the surrounding along the path was wonderful and it was only the beginning. Once entered Bärnschützklamm, steep hill was slowly replaced by steep mountain rocks and stones. We had to walk on the wooden staircase that was constructed against the huge mountain rocks, going zig zag vertically along the waterfalls. We walked slowly up the staircase and stopped to look around us. It was an experience, the air, the breeze, the wild, the sun…

Bärnschützklamm

Sometime later when the wooden path ended, we reached our first resting spot. There, we took a break. In the olden days, this was the place where the farmers herded the cows during the summer which I found quite hard to believe. How on earth would the cow managed to get here? Only with the narrow wooden path, I barely made it. They can fly… Right… Talking about the cows, there is a myth in this region. Few hundred years ago, one of the cows went missing. Rumor had it that the cow was seen fell off the cliff and died. However two months later, it was found alive under the cliff. To make it more bizarre, there was a picture of St. Maria beside the cow. The folks believe that it was a testament of God’s might. Since then, pilgrims from around the world will travel to this place. A church was later built at the location in the past century.

Chapel with the cow myth

Throughout the journey, the worst thing was that both of my knees went berserk and cramped at least three times. Arggghhhh!!!! I wasn’t able to walk with my legs being straight and I have to bend my knees to reduce the pain. It was the fault of those chilly coke and mineral water! Although it hurt, it only lasted 20 minutes each time... Finally, I managed to reach the peak of Hochlantsch. Hooray!!! It was definitely wise that we did not end the trip at the cottage. To walk the hell up here again, I will rather not if there is a choice. While at least the 360 degree view was great, but the only problem was… it was a bit foggy… Regardless, I was more surprised to see a 3 meter high cross on the peak. Apparently, it is a symbol indicating the peak and most of the mountains in Austria have something similar. Also I think it is partly due to the dominant Roman Catholic is this region as well.